Statamic
Pro or SEO Pro
- A second staff account: Pro, US$349
- Revisions and drafts: Pro
- A second form: Pro
- An API: Pro
- SEO tags and sitemaps: SEO Pro, US$75
- Redirects and 404 tracking: SEO Pro
- Updates after the first year: US$99 a year
Statamic alternative
Hatamoto vs Statamic
Statamic is a polished Laravel CMS that stores content as files you can keep in Git. Most business sites need Pro at US$349 and the SEO Pro add-on. Hatamoto is free and open source, and SEO, redirects and an MCP server come built in.
39 lines compared
Updated 28 October 2026, against Statamic 6.38 Core and Pro, with SEO Pro where noted.
- Hatamoto ahead
- 15 Licence cost, built-in SEO, AI agents and plugin safety
- Statamic ahead
- 13 Content in Git, languages, roles, sign-in and static output
- About the same
- 11 Editing, live preview, forms and revisions
Line by line
The full comparison
39 lines in nine groups. Open a group to see each line. "Ahead" means better out of the box for a typical business website.
Hatamoto aheadStatamic aheadAbout the same
Compared against Statamic 6.38 Core and Pro, with SEO Pro where noted on 28 October 2026. Sources: Statamic pricing, licence, licensing docs, static caching, SEO Pro, MCP add-on, Statamic 6. Found something out of date? Open an issue.
Six differences between Statamic and Hatamoto
- 01
Statamic keeps content in files
Entries are YAML and Markdown files you can commit to Git, review and roll back. Hatamoto stores content in Postgres and keeps revisions in the admin.
Hatamoto's data model - 02
Most business sites need Pro
Core allows one admin and one form, and has no revisions. Pro costs US$349 per site and US$99 a year for updates. Hatamoto includes all of it.
Users and forms - 03
SEO comes built in
Hatamoto writes meta tags, JSON-LD and sitemaps, and manages redirects. On Statamic these come from the SEO Pro add-on.
SEO and AI search - 04
Built for AI agents
Hatamoto ships with an MCP server, llms.txt and AI crawler reports. Statamic has no MCP server in core.
Hatamoto's MCP server - 05
No PHP stack to patch
Hatamoto is one binary that updates itself from signed releases. Statamic runs on PHP, Laravel and Composer, and each needs its own updates.
How updates work - 06
Statamic is ahead on languages and sign-in
Pro adds multilingual sites and custom roles, and version 6 added passkeys and two-factor sign-in. Hatamoto has none of these yet.
What Hatamoto leaves out
What Core leaves out
7 things a typical business site pays for on Statamic
Statamic Core is free, but it stops at one admin and one form. These are the upgrades most business sites end up buying.
Hatamoto
In the free download
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Revisions, drafts and scheduling
- Unlimited forms
- REST API and MCP server
- SEO tags, JSON-LD and sitemaps
- Redirects with a 404 log
- Signed updates, always free
Being straight with you
When Statamic is the better choice
Choose Statamic if any of these describe your team or your site.
- Your team builds in Laravel and wants the CMS inside the same app.
- You want content in Git, reviewed and deployed like code.
- You publish in two or more languages and want them in one control panel.
- You want a static HTML build you can host anywhere.
- Staff need passkeys or two-factor sign-in today.
- You need custom roles for a larger editorial team.
Moving from Statamic
Plain files make the move a straightforward job
Statamic content sits on disk as YAML and Markdown, so a script can read it directly. Hatamoto has no Statamic importer yet.
- 1
Install Hatamoto
Run it with Docker or as the single binary, next to a Postgres database. Getting started
- 2
Recreate collections
Add a Hatamoto content type for each Statamic collection, with fields that match its blueprint. Content types
- 3
Load the entries
Have a script or an AI agent read the files under <code>content/</code>, convert the Bard fields to HTML and create each entry through MCP or the CLI. Connect an AI agent
- 4
Bring the redirects
Copy your SEO Pro redirects into Hatamoto, check the slugs match, then point the domain across. Redirects
Questions people ask
Written by the Hatamoto team from Statamic's pricing page, licence and documentation, as of October 2026.
Is Statamic open source?
Statamic calls Core free and open source, and the code is public on GitHub. The licence itself is proprietary, though. It allows one production install per licence and does not let you reuse the code elsewhere. Hatamoto is Apache-2.0.
How much does Statamic cost?
Core is free for one admin and one form. Pro is US$349 per site with a year of updates, then US$99 a year if you want to keep updating. SEO Pro is a one-off US$75. Hatamoto has no paid tier.
Is Hatamoto a Statamic alternative?
Yes, for business sites that want SEO, forms, redirects and AI agent support without add-ons. Statamic is the better pick for Laravel teams, multilingual sites and anyone who wants content in Git.
Which one handles SEO better?
Statamic with SEO Pro is strong. It handles meta, JSON-LD, sitemaps, redirects and 404 tracking. Hatamoto covers the same ground without an add-on, and adds llms.txt and AI crawler reports.
Which is faster?
Both cache pages. Statamic's full static caching can serve plain HTML files without starting PHP, which is very quick. Hatamoto keeps rendered pages in memory and clears them on every edit.
Can I move from Statamic to Hatamoto?
Yes. Create matching content types, then have a script or an AI agent read your YAML and Markdown files and create the entries through Hatamoto's MCP server or CLI. Copy your redirects across and keep the same slugs.
Does Statamic work with AI agents?
Not out of the box. A third-party add-on provides an MCP server. Hatamoto's MCP server is built in, with scoped keys and an audit log.
Other comparisons
-
Hatamoto vs WordPress
The plugin stack most business sites run on, against one binary with SEO, caching and forms built in.
Read the comparison